First Steps
Yesterday I jumped into a tutorial for making a game in Unity. So far I have the background panel set up and a basic text box that, when clicked, displays new lines of dialog.
Being interactive fiction, this isn't going to be super heavy in the world of hit boxes and damage calculation. The heavy lift here will be the story outline. While developing the frame for the game in Unity I'm simultaneously writing out the "Choose your own adventure" story that this ultimately is.
Now, I will bring up Mass Effect numerous times on here because I want to point out that while in that game "Your choices matter." Is more like, "Your choices change the outcome of secondary character relationships." In the end you still had a squad for the final boss, your choices dictate who is on it.
And unlike Mass Effect, I want your choices in this game to change the ending of the game as well. Not quite a roguelike story, I don't want you to have to constantly start over and learn all the "correct" options before getting to the end. But I do want early choices to drastically change the outcome for the end.
How many endings do I make? How many character interactions should I have? Where does this take place? What is the goal for the player?
Right now I have the setting, theme, main character, and goal for the player. As far as how many characters I can jam into this? For this game there really is no limit. Many characters will only appear at most 2-3 times per playthrough. Major characters will appear throughout the game and are pivotal to the story. It really comes down to my time and resources.
I'll explain the theme once I have more of the lore and main "quests" finalized. Changing those could change the theme slightly.
Something else I need to make a choice on soon is the art style. I think the indie game aesthetic leans towards pixel art, and from a graphics standpoint I can scale that for screens much easier than hand drawn art that risks turning into pixel art when someone is running an 8K monitor.
I'll draw up some test sprites and see how they work next week.